History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent DiscoveryKing, L. W. (Leonard William)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery
King, L. W. (Leonard William)
Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C.; History, Ancient
From this description it will have been seen that the temple is an
important monument of the Egyptian art and architecture of the Middle
Kingdom. It is the only temple of that period of which considerable
traces have been found, and on that account the study of it will be of
the greatest interest. It is the best preserved of the older temples of
Egypt, and at Thebes it is by far the most ancient building recovered.
Historically it has given us a new king of the XIth Dynasty,
Sekhâhe-tep-Râ Mentuhetep, and the name of the queen of Neb-hapet-Râ
Mentuhetep, Aasheit, who seems to have been an Ethiopian, to judge from
her portrait, which has been discovered. It is interesting to note that
one of the priestesses was a negress.
The name Neb-hapet-Râ may be unfamiliar to those readers who are
acquainted with the lists of the Egyptian kings. It is a correction
of the former reading, “Neb-kheru-Râ,” which is now known from these
excavations to be erroneous. Neb-hapet-Râ (or, as he used to be called,
Neb-kheru-Râ) is Mentuhetep III of Prof. Petrie’s arrangement. Before
him there seem to have come the kings Mentuhetep Neb-hetep (who is also
commemorated in this temple) and Neb-taui-Râ; after him, Sekhâhetep-Râ
Mentuhetep IV and Seânkhkarâ Mentuhetep V, who were followed by an
Antef, bearing the banner or hawk-name Uah-ânkh. This king was followed
by Amenemhat I, the first king of the XIIth Dynasty. Antef Uah-ânkh may
be numbered Antef I, as the prince Antefa, who founded the XIth Dynasty,
did not assume the title of king.
Other kings of the name of Antef also ruled over Egypt, and they used to
be regarded as belonging to the XIth Dynasty; but Prof. Steindorff
has now proved that they really reigned after the XIIIth Dynasty, and
immediately before the Sekenenrâs, who were the fighters of the Hyksos
and predecessors of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The second names of Antef III
(Seshes-Râ-up-maat) and Antef IV (Seshes-Râ-her-her-maat) are exactly
similar to those of the XIIIth Dynasty kings and quite unlike those of
the Mentuheteps; also at Koptos a decree of Antef II (Nub-kheper-Râ) has
been found inscribed on a doorway of Usertsen (Senusret) I; so that
he cannot have preceded him. Prof. Petrie does not yet accept these
conclusions, and classes all the Antefs together with the Mentuheteps in
the XIth Dynasty. He considers that he has evidence from Herakleopolis
that Antef Xub-kheper-Râ (whom he numbers Antef V) preceded the XIIth
Dynasty, and he supposes that the decree of Nub-kheper-Râ at Koptos is
a later copy of the original and was inscribed during the XIIth Dynasty.
But this is a difficult saying. The probabilities are that Prof.
Steindorff is right. Antef Uah-ânkh must, however, have preceded the
XIIth Dynasty, since an official of that period refers to his father’s
father as having lived in Uah-ânkh ‘s time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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